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Where is Women's Fashion Going?

© Anne Paxton

The corset, shoulder pads, mini-skirts, ruffles, long sleeves, short sleeves, bustiers--has fashion hit its limit? If you look at the history of women's fashion it has gone through more metamorphisis than Mandonna's public persona. Women have gone from the proper puritanical look (corset included, of course) to the bold 20's style of Coco Chanel (www.chanel.com) who freed us from that dreaded cloth prison, and onto the comfortable, modern look of Calvin Klein. The forties and fifies held conservatism closely its bosom, but when the sixties hit that bosom lost its bra and many of the conservative ideas that went with it. Starlets like Brigitte Bardot and Vanessa Redgrave hit the scene and fashion followed them. Soon women were daring to bare more than their ankle, and designers such as Oscar De la Renta and Balenciaga opened up the fashion world to include everyday women and most importantly, the "Modern Woman" fashion that revoluntioned the industry. Suddenly a movement was born that appreciated women for being women and not mannequins to be made up for the pleasure of men. Women were taking charge of their destinies and the clothes they chose to wear.

In later decades, however, women's fashion took a step back from the "Free to Be Me" message of the sixties and transformed to the Seventies belief of "Show it and Expose It" with its see through chiffon and tight Vanderbilt jeans, which seemed to bring back the restricting necessity of the corset. The eighties were not much better with women not so much dressing for men, but instead dressing like them. The shoulder pads, the "power suits" and big hair made women look like they were trying to emulate their male counterparts or, even worse, something out of a bad Joan Crawford movie.

The light at the end of the tunnel seemed to come in the nineties with the modern look of Calvin Klien, Donna Karen, Ralph Lauren and especially Giorgio Armani (www.firstview.com) that supported the idea of simplistic styles for women who could wear an outfit to work and on a night out on the town. These styles gave women a freedom they hadn't seen since Coco Chanel flapper dress design.

So has fashion evolved enough for women? Now that women can wear pants and suit as well as dresses, have we gone as far as we can go? Some would say yes, but one look at the designs of Donatella Versace, Ana Salazar and Anna Sui (www.fashionlive.com) with their "futuristic fashions" and one could suggest we have another revolution on our hands and this time the corset stays in the closet.

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